Time and Date  

: 

Friday, 2 May 2008, 4.00 pm – 6.00 pm

Venue  

: 

Centre for Instructional Technology, CIT Auditorium, Computer Centre Level 2, NUS   

Student's Name 

: 

Zhang Tianjie

Title of Thesis   

: 

Building Citizens for Nationalist China: Municipal Parks and Parkways in Wuhan (Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang), 1927-1937
   

Abstract 

: 

This dissertation examines the conceptualization and materialization of municipal parks and parkways in Wuhan during 1927-1937, a great triple metropolis of central China, and articulates a spatial understanding of them against the background of a worldwide public park movement since late nineteenth century, a wider agenda of urban reform in the tri-cities of Wuhan, and broader efforts to remake Chinese cities in the wake of the foreign encroachment in early twentieth-century China.

The research construes these parks and parkways as a kind of newly-established public open space, and explores their architectural expressions and the social relations which informed their production and use. It intends to articulate the role of these municipal parks and parkways as an explicit spatial manifestation of the body and the mind of the citizen, which was viewed to be essential for constructing a modern nation-state in Nationalist China. Besides, it is worth noting that the process of conceiving and configuring the municipal parks and parkways was neither a simple wholesale transplantation from the West to the East, nor a linear progression of the new replacing the old. These parks and parkways in Wuhan were products of conflicts rather than homogeneous visions, constantly defined, contested and negotiated by a constellation of promoters, designers, elite and ordinary parkgoers, all under the pressing demands of state building, social rights and civic ambitions.

Keywords: Municipal Park, Park System, Spatial Manifestation, Citizenship, Nationalist China.

Under the recently established open-exam system, academic staff as well as research students are welcome to attend the Ph.D. oral defence. 

We would appreciate if you would register your attendance with Soh Ling by 29 April 2008. The exam panel members and supervisors need not register (seats will be reserved for them).

The candidate will give a 45-minute presentation, followed by a time of Q&A and subsequently, where necessary, a closed-door session involving only the exam panel will take place. For the open session, please note the following guidelines. 

1. The exam panel members can ask specific questions on the thesis as well as general questions to test the fundamentals and knowledge relevant to the subject.

2. The candidate's supervisor(s) can be present as observer(s) without Q&A right. 

3. All other participants can ask questions pertaining to the candidate's presentation during the Q&A session. 

4. Besides time control and moderating the exam process, the Chair of the exam panel has the right to intervene or overrule if, in his/her judgment, a question raised is inappropriate, irrelevant or inconsequential to the examination.

We look forward to your participation.